If Father says it's Pentecost

Written Monday evening:

Saturday evening, for the 4th or 5th year, we went to Mass at a small Parish in Floyd, VA. This Parish shares a priest with two other Parishes in the area, and has been sharing a building with a small Lutheran church. Last year they were talking about getting property and building; this year there were the beginnings of a building across the street. There were concrete walls, ceiling joists and a roof in place, and a floor & a few interior walls marked out for bathrooms, sacristy, confessional, etc. There were painted boards ready for mounting, and canisters for electrical in place.

After our tour (courtesy of the deacon), we walked back across the street to the Lutheran church, arriving in time for the pre-Mass Rosary. Hadn't done that in a while. It was nice.

Just before Mass, Father told folks to turn to page 98 in their Missallettes, in order to teach them the Psalm response. Page 98 was for Pentecost Sunday. Several folks let Father know that they thought he should be on page 97, which had the readings & Psalm listed for the Vigil of Pentecost. (Just coincidentally, the Psalms were identical, so it scarcely mattered.)

Except, that Father decided to take the teaching opportunity. He told folks that our habit of calling Satuday's Mass the "Vigil Mass" is usually incorrect. We are doing the Mass for Sunday. The Vigil Mass would be done after Evening prayer, often in a religious community, preceded by vespers (more here on vigil masses.) We aren't usually doing a true vigil; we are anticipating the Sunday celebration of the feast day, or of the Lord's resurrection.

And besides, he reminded his flock, if Father says it's Pentecost, then it IS Pentecost.

Nuff said. We sang from page 98.

This Parish desperately needs music -- the Psalm verses were spoken, the Sequence was spoken, as was the Gloria. Most of the hymns (and we did use hymns) led by the Padre were sung to other tunes, even if the given tune was familiar. Maybe once they get into their own space, they can grow a cadre of musicians.

We'll see next year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday evening addition:

I found this comment interesting from a Catholic Answers thread:

Comment 1: Let's take this opportunity to clear something up. The Saturday evening Mass is in NO sense a Vigil Mass. Since Sunday begins liturgically with First Vespers the so-called Saturday Vigil Mass is simply the Sunday Mass celebrated as soon as Sunday liturgically begins. In contrast, a Vigil Mass always precedes First Vespers or (as with the Easter Vigil) replaces it. With a Vigil Mass the Sunday or Solemnity has not yet started and the Propers of the Mass e.g. the Epistle and Gospel, are entirely different from the Mass of the Sunday or Solemnity. Such is not the case with the Saturday Evening Masses. If you have missals, folks, look them up. You will find no reference to a Saturday "Vigil" Mass.

Comment 2: It's listed as a vigil in the church bulletin. At least they got the times right.

Response: The Saturday evening Mass these days is listed as a Vigil Mass in bulletins all over North America which illustrates the fact the Sunday Bulletins all over North America a quite capable of being wrong, especially if the error sounds nice. More trusty is your missal or even the missalette in the pew. If the Saturday evening Mass is a Vigil Mass then you will find another different Mass (i.e. set of Propers) provided for Sunday Morning. But in fact you will only find one Mass which may be celebrated on Saturday evening, Sunday morning or Sunday evening. It is the Sunday Mass and NOT a Vigil.

I'll be updating the bulletin & website tomorrow. It's nice to learn stuff, even when on vacation.